Fan-demanded and fan-financed, “Veronica Mars” represents some sort of new movie making paradigm. If you love something so much that you’d “pay to see that,” you can now turn that dream project into a big screen reality by ponying up a piece of the production financing yourself.
From a fan’s standpoint, that’s kind of cool. This movie caters to them.
But as another in the rich tradition of private detective thrillers, the big screen “Veronica” isn’t just for fans only. Almost, though.
A generic murder mystery with the private eye narrating the investigation in voice over, this class reunion dramedy chugs along on the good will the cast built up over the show’s 2004-2007 run. Co-writer/director Rob Thomas tailored this to run on the familiar set-up/joke rhythms of a TV sitcom, custom fit for the vulnerable, hesitant sass of Kristen Bell, his star.
It’s self-conscious to a fault. It plays as melodramatic, and a little dated. And when it comes to laughs, it tries too hard, like a 30 year-old straining to get her senior year skinny jeans to fit.
A threat — “You know what happens when you mess with the bull, right?”
“You get the cliches?”
Ordering a drink — “Old Grand-Dad! (pause) The bourbon! Not some old guy.”
As Veronica, fresh out of law school, living in New York and about to marry Piz (Chris Lowell), says, “Old habits die hard.”
So when her one-time nemesis turned lover Logan (Jason Dohring), now in the Navy, is accused of killing his pop star girlfriend, Veronica answers the call. She’ll fly cross country to Neptune Beach, where the dead pop star was also a classmate back when they were all in school. And since that was ten years ago, Veronica is sniffing around this case that she SWEARS to dad (Enrico Colantoni) she won’t get caught up in just as her dreaded tenth high school reunion is happening.
The underpinnings of the TV show are exposed in a compact opening montage and assorted snarky or sweet “You haven’t changed a bit” reunion moments. Early scenes are heavy on the incessant Veronica-narration and exposition, references to incidents and accidents from years ago, from a sex tape to a drowning death.
But a filmgoer is constantly reminded that this was TV show, after all, as most of the players are TV bland — emoting only from the neck up. And even at that, it takes them a while for them to get their feet back under themselves as they fall back into this world and the roles they played in it.
“Wow. Two beers. THAT’S what it takes to get you surly.”

Halfway in, however, something clicks and the magic that fans fell in love with splashes up on even the casual Veronica viewer. The one-liners land and the pop culture references pile up . Cracks about “The Accused” and “Yahtzee!” pepper the picture — in between TMZ riffs and cameos by the likes of James Franco, Justin Long, Ira Glass and Dax Shepard (Ms. Bell’s husband).
As Mr. C. (Duane Daniels), the school principal notes, the years since Veronica left have been “ten years of peace and quiet.”
Yeah, she shrugs. “If you like that sort of thing.”
Which goes for “Veronica Mars,” the movie, too. For all its fun flourishes and tepid over familiarity, fans are going to dig this. It is, after all, the movie they paid for. They’re the folks who “like this sort of thing.” The rest of us can be forgiven for waiting for it to show up on Netflix — on TV.

about.me

Film Critic

I am a film critic with Tribune News Service, where my reviews and profiles run in some 1200 newspapers and media websites across North America. Through them, my work has appeared in publications from The Chicago Tribune to The Los Angeles Times, The Orlando Sentinel to The Portland Press Herald, The Atlanta Journal Constitution to The Washington Post.

I've also been published in Spin, The World, Vitae, assorted other magazines over the years. And I've popped up on MSNBC, CNN, and more local TV and radio programs than I can count.

As newspapers, TV and radio stations and magazines have finite shelf lives for articles they keep up online, this site serves mainly as an archive -- one place where every actor or filmmaker profile or review that I write can be found.